Principles of 2D Animation, The Beginnings

 

Before you can run you have to walk.  For Principles of 2D Animation we first had to draw before we could animate.  We were given a character pack that we had to master, as we would be using these characters to do our animations with.  For each character we had to due a five point turnaround (even the ball), and expression sheet, and action poses.  We also  had to show an idea of how to squash and stretch objects, as it is one of the 12 principles of animation.

Animal Poker Night!

One of the last pieces I did for the class was an extra credit illustration of animals we studied at the Smithsonian.  I chose a kangaroo, an American badger, a colossal squid, and a chameleon all playing poker.  I did it in grey scale with pencil on;y.

Assignment 4: Brain Squid!

Our final project!  In this assignment we had to combine our knowledge of character and background design.  The assignment was to do a human with animal characteristics (Wolverine, Spiderman) or an animal with human characteristics (Bugs Bunny, Simba) as well as create a suitable environment for them to exist in.  We had extra credit to go to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History to do sketches and study animal anatomy before we started the project and it was there that I got my inspiration.  The colossal squid grows to the size of 46 feet long, so Brain Squid weighs in at the short end of 15 feet.  Due to this he is ostracized and ridiculed from the other squids and uses his superior intellect to build a squid laboratory and utility chair to help him terrorize the (smaller then him) townspeople above the water.  This assignment required a 5 point turnaround, a combined expression and action sheet, an interior and exterior background, an style sheets.  I chose the sunny locale, based of an Italian city as a juxtaposition to Brain Squid dark underwater home.  I turned this assignment in on my birthday (along with a 100 page sketchbook) and it was a great relief that it was taken well.  This class was a blast and I would recommend that everyone think up a few characters and environments just for kicks.

Assignment 3: Victorians In SPACE...space...space...

This was our first assignment on backgrounds.  The assignment was to do a Victorian era background, focusing on an interior, exterior, and an illustration populated with characters.  We also had to provide a style sheet for the characters in the illustration.  One of the more entertaining aspects of the Victorian era is the steampunk genre, which is the direction I took with this project.  The fun with steampunk is it combines a fantasy magical world with that of industrial age technology.  I took that idea and pushed it further, creating a background for a Victorian spaceship traveling to other worlds.  Even the aliens have a Victorian theme, pulling from the H.P. Lovecraft Cthulu stories.  One of the parts of the assignment was to show a knowledge of perspective, using horizon and vanishing point, to showcase fore, mid, and backgrounds.  I had a lot of fun with the illustration, enjoying creating characters that could fit a video game rpg, including classes like the sniper, the alchemist ( the guy holding the blue ball that they use to power everything), and the crackpot engineer that appears in the style sheet (along with his Bomb-Boy robot creation).  This was another project I had a blast creating.

Assignment 2: Tremor Guard

 

Assignment numero 2, take a monster from universal studios and re-imagine it.  While the teacher was meaning for us to do Dracula or Frankenstein or the Wolfman, I wiki'd Univeral Studio monsters and saw that they did indeed due the film Tremors in 1990.   The teacher begrudgingly ok'd it and I decided to go full out and get a better grade on this one.  The backstory is that in a valley down in South America a tremor monster has been trapped, along with a small tribal village.  The village has been worshiping the "Graboid" as a god and making human sacrifices to it.  So many sacrifices later it has had mutated Guardian Tremor offspring to help do away with outsiders and continue the feedings.  The Tremor monster has gotten huge from the constant feedings as shown in the final illustration.  The assignment required a five point turnaround, much more difficult than a three point as it involves a 3/4 front and 3/4 back view, an action sheet, an expression sheet, and a style sheet for the character and an object.  The illustration I did as extra credit (It paid off, I got an A).  I really enjoyed this project even though it stole my soul for an entire weekend.  As it turned out every other project did the same thing.

Assignment 1: Aphrodite

My first and lowest graded assignment.  This assignment was to take a Greek god and put them in modern times.  My wife told me to make Aphrodite the Stripper.  I didn't mind the research on this one.  Again we had to due a 3 point turnaround and an action sheet.  The class also had to do an expression sheet as well as a style sheet (how to draw the character).  My backstory for her was that she is a part of the Olympians, Greek gods that have modern day jobs during the day and fight crime by night.  Aphrodite uses her powers of love to seduce her clientele and coerce the villains, but it has made her a jaded and sad character, since she can never experience true love.  While I did very well on the action sheet, I was graded poorly on the consistency of the expression sheet and the style sheet. 

Background and Character Design Misc.

The first few assignments were on characters based off of written stories and random objects.  The story involved a feud between Dr. Weatherman and Captain Mailman.  It was a pretty goofy story but it let us devise sketches of how we perceived the characters.  I chose Dr. Weatherman and made him into a goofy villain complete with giant helmet and cape.  My random object was just a stapler laying around the office.  That assignment was to introduce us to three point turnarounds and action poses.  This first round of assignments was just warming us up to what was to follow...

Semester 3 Accomplished!

Another semester bites the dust and with that accomplishment comes a new slew of pictures to upload.  They are all from one class, Background and Character Design, but they vary quite a bit in design, style and skill.  New posts to come!